New Zealand Spring is Here

August 31, 2013

Wow, we have been out for 4 months; sometimes it seems like it has gone fast and other times it seems so long since we've seen you all, especially since we've gotten a hug from the grandkids.  We are teaching quite a few kids (8 - 14 years old) who have younger brothers and sisters so we get lots of substitute hugs, which is fun.

Sister White, Sister Erina Williams, RS president in Matauri Bay Branch, and Sister Olsen

Several people have asked about the earthquakes, but they are much further south and we haven't felt them at all.  The initial earthquake did a little damage, but the aftershocks mostly just make the people a little nervous.  We plan on going to Hamilton next Friday afternoon and staying overnight and attending the temple wedding for Melanie Green and her fiancee.  It will be so fun to see someone from home.  We will stay over-night with Don and Rosemary White, whom Dian has known since junior high and Don knew them at Utah State.  Don is a land developer who works for the church.  They came up her for a couple of days last weekend and we showed them around the area on Saturday and then they went to Church with us on Sunday and we then had dinner with the Relief Society president, Erina Williams, who knew the Whites from when they used to live in Hamilton.  It was a different experience for them to attend such a small branch.

Dian, Rosemary and Don

the Olsens and the Whites

Our new converts are doing well.  We see Denise, the English lady, more often as she lives here in Kerikeri.  She has us over to dinner about once a week and Tuesday morning we took her with us to Kaikohe, where the stake chapel is so that she could learn about family history (or whakkapapa)  at the center there while we attended District meeting.  She was so excited after, as she had been able to go back several generations on each side.  She will be able to get more into it when she gets her membership number.  She loves to work on the computer, so we're sure she will keep busy with family history and indexing. She has no family close by, so she has quite a bit of time on her hands and is excited to get a calling and start being a visiting teacher, etc.

Denise Peacock our recent English convert

Amelia is much busier as she has quite a lot of family close by (including 2 teens of her own), plus several older sons and their families, so she helps with grandkids quite often and goes to the Marae (Maori meeting house) and helps with food for tangi's (funerals) and is taking a class so that she and another member she is friends with can help out those who are homebound.  Amelia is a very caring person and great at cheering people up with her fun sense of humor. She and her friend, Rehu, had us to dinner also last week and treated us so good, including sending us off with a snack bag of food for our long drives. We are taking them to lunch and on a little tour of the Matauri Bay area this afternoon (it's starting to rain as I type this).

Amelia Rogers a recent convert

Last Sunday we were at Matauri Bay, but wished we could also have been at the Waihou branch.  A young woman from Brazil spoke, who is a member of the branch and a returned missionary (she served at Temple Square in SLC and in Las Vegas for  a while).  She works her in New Zealand with the student exchange program between Brazil and New Zealand.  She has a group of non-member friends in the area from Brazil, a couple  whom she works with; and she invited them all to church since she was going to be the speaker. Ten people came (6 adults and 4 children) and we heard she gave a tremendous talk about agency. She really wanted us to be there to meet them afterwards, but it was our turn at the other branch and we had things that were needful there.  We talked to her afterwards and gave her 6 Books of Mormon.  She is going to put a copy of the photo they took of them all together at the church in the front of the book, along with her testimony and have us deliver them.  She thinks at least some of them will want to have the discussions. They are all quite intrigued with her because she is so happy and yet never drinks, nor does some of the other things they think make life fun.  She has shown them they don't need to do that to have real joy in life. She is a riot to listen to, she is so excited and talks so fast with lots of gestures.  She laughed when we told her that and said we should she her whole group of Brazilian friends when they get together.  That's the kind of member referrals you dream of.

It's spring time here so it is so fun to see the baby lambs and calves as we drive through the country side. We tried getting a photo of  a ewe and her 3 tiny ones, but they ran off as soon as we got out of the car.
We may come home sounding a little different; we're starting to say things like, "we'll pop in for a minute, we'll ring you laters, ahh - yup, and yous's (as in "are youses going to the fireside?)

no shortage of grass for the lambs

A funny story that happened some time ago.  We went by to visit a non-active member, a woman with a couple of younger kids.  She wasn't real friendly and said she was just fixing some lunch for her children. We asked if we could stop by another time and she indicated that would be OK.  Two or three weeks later we stopped by again and she saw us through the window.  She proceeded to come out into her carport to gather up some clothes that were drying as we got out of the car.  We said "hi" to her, but she did not respond as she went into the house.  So we went to the front door and rang the door bell and could see her through the window folding her clothes.  We we just about to leave, when she came and flung the front door open but then proceeded to fold clothes again.  We tried to strike up a conversation for several minutes, but she just ignored us.  We finally said "Well, apparently we caught you at a bad time and will just leave this pamphlet with you ," and we left.  Apparently she wasn't very sincere when she said we were welcome to come back.

giving the Elders a ride on P-day

Elder Olsen got to celebrate a second Father's Day today (1st Sunday in Sept. in NZ). We enjoyed a wonderful dinner at the Snow's (an older couple in their early 80's  whom everyone loves and looks up to in the Waihou Branch).  They served a mission here in their own stake after the Jolley's.  They have an open Family Home Evening on Monday evenings and everyone is invited in the area and brings a dish to share.
It's now Monday evening and we just returned from FHE, where Elder Olsen and I took a turn at leading a discussion.  On the way out of their long driveway we, including our Tongan friend) saw a Kiwi bird, which is a rare thing, as they are an endangered species and only come out at night.  They are a strange looking bird, but much loved here and are the national bird.  We were so excited but didn't manage to get a photo to share.  Ahhh!

Thanks to Brother Murray, whom we wrote about in the ward newsletter, we have 3 new investigators to teach. He passed away a couple of weeks ago of cancer, but not before getting ordained an Elder, baptizing his youngest son and going to the temple and being sealed as a family.  (He died within a few days of accomplishing his goals).  One more thing he did the last few weeks of his life was to share his testimony and encouragement with several inactive family members and friends.  He touched many lives with his faith and courage this past year as he overcame obstacles and put things in order spiritually.  His wife Arri,who has wanted to go to the temple for several years,  feels more at peace now as she faces finishing raising their 7 children still at home.

Take care!  We are so blessed to have such a wonderful and supportive family and such great friends.  We love you lots!

we continue to marvel at such spectacular scenery

near an exclusive golf course Kauri Cliffs